Europeans Reach America

These Europeans were led by Eric the Red, and were chased out of the Americas by Native Americans.

• Pilgrims

• Puritans

• Vikings

• Greenlanders

This famous explorer is responsible for telling amazing stories of spices and jewels. He sparked the exploration of Asia by traveling on foot from Italy to China.

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Christopher Columbus

• Bartholomeu Dias

• Marco Polo

He set up a navigational school to find a sea route to Asia, discover unknown lands, and to spread the Christian religion.

• Prince Henry

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Vasco da Gama

• Amerigo Vespucci

He sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, which led to discovering a passage from Europe to Asia, by going around the tip of Africa.

• Vasco da Gama

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Bartholomeu Dias

• Henry Hudson

He kept 2 logs of his travels, fooling his crew into thinking they were closer to home than they actually were. He also gave the name "Indians" to the people he discovered in the Indies.

• King Ferdinand

• Christopher Columbus

• Bjarni Herjulfsson

• John Cabot

This "sea of darkness" led the way to America. The European explorers hoped that it would lead directly to Asia by sailing west across it.

• Pacific Ocean

• Gulf of Mexico

• Indian Ocean

• Atlantic Ocean

This famous Italian realized that Columbus was wrong! He had not found Asia, but an entirely new land. We even named a nearby continent after him.

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Salvador Africano

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Vasco da Gama

What is an isthmus?

• A pointed piece of coastline that juts out into the sea

• A narrow strip of land connecting two larger pieces of land

• A waterway that connects two larger bodies of water

• A series of storms that create a change in ocean currents

This Portuguese sea captain traveled around the world for Spain. This confirmed that the world was round, and that you could continue to sail west from Europe to get to Asia.

• Christopher Columbus

• Vasco da Gama

• Ferdinand Magellan

• Balboa

This explorer traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and realized there was another Ocean yet to cross to get to Asia. This Spanish explorer landed on the Isthmus of Panama in 1513.

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Vasco da Gama

• Stormy Franklin

• Balboa